AI Research Scientist
£85,000 – £132,000 / yr base salary
Posted 20 Aug 2026
Advertised as “Senior AI Research Scientist (Model-based RL)”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 2+ yrs
- Management level
- People management
- Employment
- Remote
- Visa sponsorship
- Not offered
| Base salary | £85,000 – £132,000 / yr |
|---|
Field of studyControl, Machine learning, Technical Field (or related)
Study levelDoctorate
About Phaidra
Phaidra is building the future of industrial automation.
The world today is filled with static, monolithic infrastructure. Factories, power plants, buildings, etc. operate the same they've operated for decades — because the controls programming is hard-coded. Thousands of lines of rules and heuristics that define how the machines interact with each other. The result of all this hard-coding is that facilities are frozen in time, unable to adapt to their environment while their performance slowly degrades.
Phaidra creates AI-powered control systems for the industrial sector, enabling industrial facilities to automatically learn and improve over time. Specifically:
- We use reinforcement learning algorithms to provide this intelligence, converting raw sensor data into high-value actions and decisions.
- We focus on industrial applications, which tend to be well-sensorized with measurable KPIs — perfect for reinforcement learning.
- We enable domain experts (our users) to configure the AI control systems (i.e. agents) without writing code. They define what they want their AI agents to do, and we do it for them.
Our team has a track record of applying AI to some of the toughest problems. From achieving superhuman performance with DeepMind's AlphaGo, to reducing the energy required to cool Google's Data Centers by 40%, we deeply understand AI and how to apply it in production for massive impact.
Phaidra’s ability to achieve its mission is determined by our ability to work together — as defined by our core values: Agency, Velocity, Craft, and Truth. We seek individuals who embody these values, as they are instrumental in ensuring our team consistently delivers excellence and fosters an engaging and supportive culture
Phaidra is based in the USA, but we are 100% remote with no physical office. We hire employees internationally with the help of our partner, OysterHR. Our team is currently located throughout the USA, Canada, UK, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Singapore, Australia, and India.
Who You Are
Research Scientists at Phaidra lead our efforts in developing novel algorithmic architecture towards the end goal of bringing intelligent control systems to industrial sector.
Having pioneered research in the world's leading academic and industrial labs as PhDs, post-docs or professors, Research Scientists join Phaidra to work collaboratively within and across research fields.